First introduced in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, and still in use by enthusiasts today, letterpress printing uses raised blocks of reversed, reusable letters and graphics laid out in a frame, which are then inked and pressed onto a sheet of paper to produce a right-reading image. Those born after the advent of desktop publishing can now experience such old- world craftsmanship right on their Mac, thanks to the $9.99 LetterMpress app.
A port of developer Bonadies Creative’s iPad app of the same name, LetterMpress is a Mac App Store exclusive with realistic graphics and sound, taking advantage of extra screen real estate to produce prints as high as 8192 pixels wide-- that’s over 26 inches at 300dpi. The app faithfully reproduces the experience of using a letterpress machine, making great use of OS X Lion’s expansive full-screen mode.
The most fun part of LetterMpress is the Print mode, which features a dizzying array of options.
LetterMpress features two modes: Compose and Print. A toolbar at the bottom of the screen provides quick access to the tools necessary to set your type and graphics, which slide down from the top of the screen. Choose from more than 25 provided typefaces and an array of graphics for inserting frames, dingbats, and other accessories. Sadly, gestures can’t be used to scroll through lists-- you’ll have to awkwardly click and drag, or grab a nearly imperceptible scroll bar above. Considering it was ported from an iPad, some of the Mac controls are downright clunky.
On a brighter note, the app features authentic sound effects (which can be toggled off) to accompany the beautiful animated graphics, and the real fun comes when switching to Print mode. Select from a dizzying array of paper and ink choices, click and drag right to roll the press across your table, and out flies your finished work, which you can then choose to Keep or Reject. Based on your preference settings, prints can be exported in four different resolutions and five different page sizes to suit most any type of end use. LetterMpress can also save your prints as PNG files for use in external graphics programs.
The bottom line. Purists will miss the smell of real ink and paper, but LetterMpress otherwise captures the experience of letterpress printing quite effectively-- with no mess to clean up afterward. The app features a considerable number of options for the price, but still needs some spit and polish on the user interface.Letterpress printing gets a faithful translation to the Mac, despite its UI quirks
First introduced in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, and still in use by enthusiasts today, letterpress printing uses raised blocks of reversed, reusable letters and graphics laid out in a frame, which are then inked and pressed onto a sheet of paper to produce a right-reading image. Those born after the advent of desktop publishing can now experience such old- world craftsmanship right on their Mac, thanks to the $9.99 LetterMpress app.
A port of developer Bonadies Creative’s iPad app of the same name, LetterMpress is a Mac App Store exclusive with realistic graphics and sound, taking advantage of extra screen real estate to produce prints as high as 8192 pixels wide-- that’s over 26 inches at 300dpi. The app faithfully reproduces the experience of using a letterpress machine, making great use of OS X Lion’s expansive full-screen mode.
LetterMpress features two modes: Compose and Print. A toolbar at the bottom of the screen provides quick access to the tools necessary to set your type and graphics, which slide down from the top of the screen. Choose from more than 25 provided typefaces and an array of graphics for inserting frames, dingbats, and other accessories. Sadly, gestures can’t be used to scroll through lists-- you’ll have to awkwardly click and drag, or grab a nearly imperceptible scroll bar above. Considering it was ported from an iPad, some of the Mac controls are downright clunky.
On a brighter note, the app features authentic sound effects (which can be toggled off) to accompany the beautiful animated graphics, and the real fun comes when switching to Print mode. Select from a dizzying array of paper and ink choices, click and drag right to roll the press across your table, and out flies your finished work, which you can then choose to Keep or Reject. Based on your preference settings, prints can be exported in four different resolutions and five different page sizes to suit most any type of end use. LetterMpress can also save your prints as PNG files for use in external graphics programs.
The bottom line. Purists will miss the smell of real ink and paper, but LetterMpress otherwise captures the experience of letterpress printing quite effectively-- with no mess to clean up afterward. The app features a considerable number of options for the price, but still needs some spit and polish on the user interface.
Mac OS 10.6.6 or later
Realistic graphics and sound make for an authentic experience. Plenty of fun options to choose from. Makes great use of full-screen mode in OS X Lion.
Doesn’t take advantage of OS X Lion gestures. Occasional display glitches with “ghost” blocks sticking on screen. iPad user interface doesn’t quite make a smooth transition to Mac.
Mikado
December 06, 2011 at 3:26pm
You mention 'ghost blocks' in your negatives list.
Perhaps you are seeing blocks in their hovering state (double click to toggle). You hover blocks above the press to organize or move them around without disrupting blocks sitting on the press. These hovering state blocks also don't print when making impressions.
